Waterfalls of the Keweenaw

Conditions:

Hot, sunny, buggy, some recent rain

Companions:

Logan

Vehicle:

Ford Taurus

While I had been out to Otter Falls earlier this month, I was fairly certain that I didn't actually reach the falls. On the first trip out, I ended up turning around early at the sight of a cabin ahead in order to avoid blatent trespassing. This time I planned to approach the falls from the west, hopefully avoiding trespassing.

This was the first big hike for Logan without Katie, and the puppy was really looking forward to it after being caged all day. We headed down to Alston and then turned up Pike Lake road. There's a maze of two-tracks that lead off of Pike Lake along the northern side of Otter River, and we hoped to use them to drive and hike most of the way to the falls. Unfortunately, they were too overgrown for my little car, and we ended up exiting the vehicle after only a mile in with several miles left to hike.

It was a bit cloudy out, but you could still roughly tell which direction was west by the sun, so we headed into the maze of roads and hopes to find a river. I got pretty confused after we cut into the woods for the first time just to find another overgrown two-track, one that shouldn't have been there. Nevertheless, we continued heading south and east along the roads until we could tell there was a deep river valley to our left. Guessing it was Bruno Creek, which runs into Otter River, we headed off the two-track and followed it downstream through some horribly thick woods.

I could just barely hear the rush of a waterfall when we reached Otter River but wasn't able to figure out what direction it was coming from. Hoping to avoid fording the deep and slow-moving waters, we headed upstream and found nothing but thick underbrush. I had to pick Logan up and cross the river, which came above my knees, and head downstream to the falls. They were short and sloping, but had a nice sandstone ledge nearby and would probably make a decent, if remote, place to go swimming.

Heading back upstream to Bruno Creek, we forded the river again and attempted to stay a distance from the thick underbrush by the creek. This did lead to a moment of panic, though - by keeping Bruno to our right, I knew we were heading upstream. There was one point when we were especially distant from the the creek and I could see another river to our left, flowing the opposite way! This ended up just being Otter River, and my fears of being turned around and lost unfounded. We made it safely back to the car just before dark and drove back with the sunset.

After doing a bit of research, it turns out there are three drops near Otter Falls. I saw the lower ones on the first visit, and the ones today ended up being the upper drop. There's still the main falls in the middle, but neither Logan and I are in any rush to visit them. The black flies were horrendously thick on both visits, and there are no trails to speak of. When I do return, though, I know I will be taking the Hazel Swamp route from the first trip. The Pike Lake road hike involved navigating a maze of overgrown two-tracks, fording several deep creeks, and a hidden nest of Yellow Jackets that Logan found.